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                         UNITED STATES
                 NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
              OFFICE OF NUCLEAR REACTOR REGULATION
                  WASHINGTON, D.C.  20555-0001
                                
                        October 4, 1995

NRC INFORMATION NOTICE 95-45: AMERICAN POWER SERVICE FALSIFICATION
                              OF AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR
                              NONDESTRUCTIVE TESTING (ASNT)
                              CERTIFICATES


Addressees

All holders of operating licenses or construction permits for nuclear power reactors.

Purpose

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is issuing this information notice to alert
addressees that American Power Service (APS) of Georgetown, Massachusetts, has
deliberately given falsified American Society for Nondestructive Testing (ASNT) certificates to
an NRC licensee in connection with the procurement of commercial-grade services. It is
expected that recipients will review the information for applicability to their facilities and consider
actions, as appropriate, to avoid similar problems.  However, suggestions contained in this
information notice are not NRC requirements; therefore, no specific action or written response
is required. 

Description of Circumstances

In response to information submitted by the Northeast Nuclear Energy Company (NNECo), the
NRC recently investigated APS, a vendor that provides commercial-grade services for the
resurfacing of babbitt material on bearings.  The NRC determined that the president of APS
deliberately and improperly falsified ASNT certificates and gave them to NNECo.

Discussion

On March 4, 1994, NNECo advised the NRC by letter (Accession Number 9403150377) that on
February 15, 1994, it had received apparently falsified certificates from APS.  NNECo had
contracted with APS for commercial-grade services in supplying rebabbitted bearings for a
Millstone Unit No. 2 reactor building closed cooling water system pump.  Since APS did not
have a NNECo approved quality assurance program, the rebabbitted bearings were to be
dedicated and accepted under NNECo's quality assurance program.  The dedication process
included ultrasonic examination which was to be performed by NNECo as part of the receiving
inspection.


9509270134
                                                                            IN 95-45
                                                                            October 4, 1995
                                                                            Page 2 of 2


During NNECo source inspection of APS, the APS president informed the NNECo Quality
Assessment Services (QAS) inspector that APS had developed in-house ultrasonic testing
capability and gave the inspector copies of what appeared to be ASNT certificates identifying
three of the company's employees as ultrasonic testing inspectors or examiners.  Upon
observing that the certificates had identical serial numbers, the NNECo QAS inspector
contacted ASNT and learned that ASNT had not issued the certificates in question.

NNECO informed NRC of its findings in the March 4, 1994, letter, (Accession Number
9403150377).  The NRC Office of Investigations determined that the president of APS
deliberately and improperly falsified ASNT certificates and gave them to NNECo. NRC informed
APS of its finding by letter dated February 14, 1995 (Accession Number 9502160007).

Since APS was performing a commercial-grade service and since the acceptance of the
bearings was based on ultrasonic testing performed by NNECo, the integrity of the bearings
was not compromised and NNECo was able to justify their use in the intended application.

This information notice requires no specific action or written response.  If you have any
questions about the information in this notice, please contact the technical contact listed below
or the appropriate Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation (NRR) project manager.


                                 Dennis M. Crutchfield, Director


                                 Division of Reactor Program Management
                                 Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation

Technical contact:  Uldis Potapovs
                    (301) 415-2959

Attachment:  List of Recently Issued NRC Information Notices [see WordPerfect File]
```